Know What's Happening in Legal
Know What's Happening in Legal
NY Court Narrows D&O Run‑Off Coverage Exclusions
A New York federal court ruled that acts occurring after a D&O policy’s cut‑off date do not automatically defeat coverage unless the acts are unlawful. Judge Jed Rakoff found AmTrust’s 2019 preferred‑share delisting to be a lawful corrective disclosure, causing the insurer’s reliance on the subsequent‑acts exclusion to fail.
A federal judge refused to dismiss the DOJ’s antitrust suit against Live Nation and granted summary judgment on the core claim that its promotion and booking activities constitute a monopoly, meaning the facts overwhelmingly favor Live Nation. The case now hinges on two remaining issues: whether Live Nation’s amphitheater network is a monopoly and whether Ticketmaster’s long‑term venue agreements lock large arenas into exclusive ticketing. The judge’s ruling points to narrow, behavioral remedies rather than a structural breakup, signaling a major win for Live Nation’s integrated model.
Earlier in 2026 the U.S. Department of Labor released two opinion letters interpreting key Fair Labor Standards Act provisions. The first letter clarified that employers may lawfully reclassify a worker who meets the learned professional exemption as nonexempt, provided overtime...
In this episode, senior reporter Katya Kazekina unpacks the newly released DOJ files that reveal how Jeffrey Epstein facilitated sophisticated financial maneuvers for ultra‑wealthy art collectors, especially billionaire Leon Black. The documents expose the massive scale of Black’s art holdings—valued...
Indiana’s 2022 higher‑education law requires public universities to promote intellectual diversity and expose students to varied ideological perspectives. Four professors from Indiana University and Purdue argue the mandate forces curricular changes that violate their First Amendment free‑speech rights. A lower...
In 2025 Washington’s State Board of Accountancy issued a record 2,086 new CPA licenses, a 16.3% increase from the previous year. Remarkably, more than 60% of those licenses were awarded to international candidates who sat the exam at overseas testing...
Delaware Superior Court limited the scope of a pollution exclusion in liability policies covering Syngenta’s herbicide paraquat, ruling it does not apply to injuries from normal product use. Travelers must defend six test cases filed between 1974 and 1977, where...
Governance sets direction. Risk measures exposure. Compliance checks alignment. And yet, frequently, these three are completely misaligned. How do governance, risk, and compliance work together for your organization?
The Washington Supreme Court revived a wrongful‑death suit against Amazon, allowing families of four young victims who ingested high‑purity sodium nitrite purchased on the platform to pursue claims. The court rejected the lower courts' view that sellers have no duty...
Big law firms continue to pursue aggressive geographic expansion, opening new offices across the United States and Europe. Kirkland & Ellis launched a Nashville office with ten litigators and plans additional hires, while Morrison & Foerster added 15 former Perkins Coie partners to start...
Zambia’s government is tightening enforcement of the Employment Code Act and the Geological and Minerals Development Act, mandating mining firms to give first preference to Zambian workers. Expatriate hires are only permitted when a genuine skills gap exists and must...
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Samantha Jessner ruled that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power can be sued for failing to supply sufficient water during the 2025 Pacific Palisades wildfire. The decision rests on a California law that...
In Grow Universe Inc. v. Doe, Judge Gregory Woods denied a defendant’s request to proceed anonymously in a lawsuit alleging unauthorized access to a Google business account, misappropriation of trade secrets, and account deletion under the Computer Fraud and Abuse...
A New York federal judge ruled that AI‑generated documents created with Claude are not protected by attorney‑client privilege. The decision highlights that open‑gen AI outputs are treated as ordinary evidence, not confidential communications. Attorneys warn that the ruling exposes firms...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit warned that AI‑generated legal briefs can contain hallucinations, after attorney Heather Hersh submitted a brief riddled with inaccuracies. The court imposed a $2,500 sanction for her failure to verify the content...
In 2025, FCPA enforcement slowed dramatically, with fewer publicly announced cases and no new SEC actions. The DOJ paused investigations early in the year and issued revised guidance that emphasizes selectivity toward high‑impact bribery and national‑security concerns. Despite the overall...
New York Court of Appeals cleared the TRYP Hotel of negligence in the 2017 balcony suicide of Dr. Noah Beadell. The majority held the hotel had no control over the guest and that the family’s expectation of an immediate 911...
Australian Taxation Office second commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn warns regulators that AI adoption must respect citizen dignity. He highlights the tension between moving quickly to harness AI benefits and the risk of exposing massive personal data sets. The ATO, a pioneer...
California’s Supreme Court in Fuentes v. Empire Nissan clarified that a barely readable arbitration clause creates procedural unconscionability, but enforceability still hinges on substantive fairness. The court found the arbitration terms themselves were not inherently one‑sided, yet it sent the...
A federal district court in Bloomfield v. Engineered Structures ruled that temporary workers from staffing agencies must be counted as employees under SBA regulations. The decision relied on 13 C.F.R. §121.106 and the SBA Size Policy Statement, confirming that the...
The Supreme Court is poised to decide *Trump v. Slaughter* and *Trump v. Cook*, two cases that pit the Court’s Fed‑specific removal protection against a broader challenge to agency independence. In *Cook*, the Court upheld the Federal Reserve’s unique at‑will...
India’s labour and employment ministry has issued a handbook detailing nearly two dozen compliance obligations for employers under the four newly‑enforced labour codes. The codes—covering wages, social security, industrial relations, and occupational safety—replaced 29 legacy statutes on 21 November 2025. Obligations are...
The Above the Law guide outlines six critical areas legal teams must evaluate when selecting AI vendors, emphasizing risks around confidentiality, privilege, and reliability. It provides practical questions for each assessment category and highlights Filevine’s LOIS platform as an integrated...
Britain’s Labour government is under growing pressure over its contracts with U.S. data‑analytics firm Palantir, which include a £330 million NHS platform and a £240 million defence deal awarded without competition. Critics cite the company’s founder Peter Thiel, its work with ICE, and...
Timothy Conlon, a DarrowEverett partner, discusses his transition from family law to eDiscovery on the Illumination Zone podcast, highlighting his new book *Electronic Evidence for Family Law Attorneys*. He explains how smartphones act as “supercomputers in a pocket,” storing self‑disclosed...
When a startup secures venture capital, its liability profile shifts dramatically as cash, fiduciary duties, and litigation exposure rise overnight. Without directors and officers (D&O) coverage, founders and executives can face personal financial loss from employment, equity, or disclosure disputes....
Trying something new this week: instead of one legal win at a time or a long deep-dive, here’s a 3-minute roundup of the administration’s legal L’s — a concentrated shot of court losses, blocked policies, and judges saying “not so...
Eric Goldman announced a forthcoming Chicago‑Kent Law Review essay titled “SAD Scheme Standing Orders.” The piece surveys the emerging wave of judicial standing orders aimed at curbing the abusive Schedule A (SAD) IP enforcement scheme that has proliferated over the past...
Claude Cowork has launched a legal plug‑in that automates contract review, NDA triage, compliance workflows, and templated responses, positioning itself as a direct competitor to traditional law firms. The announcement triggered immediate market reactions, with SaaS giants Adobe, HubSpot and...
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has hired a senior partner from Kirkland & Ellis who led the firm’s London Market & Energy (LME) practice. The move comes as Kirkland faces internal sponsor tensions that have prompted several private‑equity‑focused lawyers to reconsider their positions. The recruited...
The episode examines Cigna’s settlement with the FTC over its Express Scripts PBM, which was accused of inflating insulin prices through opaque rebate deals. Key provisions require Cigna to prioritize lower‑cost drug versions, base patient copays on net prices, increase...
Today's Consumer Finance Monitor podcast examines the rapid consumerization of small‑business lending, highlighting a surge in state‑level protection statutes. Host Alan Kaplinsky interviews Louis Caditz‑Peck of the Responsible Business Lending Coalition about the shift from self‑regulation to formal legislation, including...
The UK Court of Appeal upheld the Information Commissioner’s Office decision to fine Currys Group Ltd (formerly DSG Retail) £500,000 for failing to protect personal data after a 2017‑18 cyber‑attack. The ruling confirms that organisations must safeguard all personal data,...
The Georgia Supreme Court disbarred workers’ compensation attorney Bryan Matthew Pritchett after an investigation revealed he forged client signatures and diverted nearly $160,000 in settlement funds. Pritchett, suspended in 2024, must repay over $104,000 to one client and additional amounts...
Proud to share that The Legalmiga Library® is officially an Entreprenista Approved Partner. ✨ @entreprenistas supports ambitious women founders, and this recognition means our legal templates and resources are trusted to help real businesses protect what they’re building. The Library was created...
Big. A major new law & tech paper takes on the economics of behavioral advertising - the kind that tracks users across multiple businesses and contexts, not just on sites they choose to visit. It challenges industry’s favorite claim: that tracking...
The COMESA Competition and Consumer Commission (CCCC) has opened an investigation into Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd for allegedly abusing its dominant position by amending WhatsApp Business Solution Terms in October 2025 to block rival AI chatbot providers. The probe follows...
An interesting @WSJ piece by @ErinMulvaney about Biglaw billing rates—which have broken the $3,000-an-hour mark. I'm quoted (thanks to Erin for speaking w/me): “Setting these rates is more art than science. At a certain point, for some firms, it’s a publicity...
WATCH: Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse reacts to 90% prediction market odds of the CLARITY Act passing by April 2026 https://t.co/hEvS16wCJN
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr appointed George John as chair and Kimberly Baum as vice‑chair of the World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee, re‑chartered on Jan. 21. The committee will guide the FCC’s positions for the International Telecommunication Union’s 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference. The...
The Supreme Court will hear Enbridge Energy LP v. Nessel, a dispute over whether the 30‑day deadline for removing a state‑court case to federal court can be equitably tolled. Enbridge removed a Michigan lawsuit 30 months after filing, arguing that extraordinary circumstances justify an...
Ralph Losey challenges Matt Shumer’s viral claim that AI will soon replace white‑collar workers, arguing that while capability is accelerating, progress is jagged and domain‑specific. He highlights persistent hallucinations in legal AI, the limited relevance of benchmark curves, and the...
Solinex, a specialist law firm, offers a full‑service model that merges legal counsel, cryptocurrency analytics, and international coordination to track and recover stolen digital assets. The firm reports a 97% case completion rate and has served over 4,800 clients in...
The 2026 State of the Industry Report from eDiscovery Today highlights a widening AI adoption gap across legal firms. Only about 35% of respondents report using advanced AI tools for document review, while the majority remain reliant on legacy workflows....
The FDA, under Commissioner Marty Makary, is pushing to expand over‑the‑counter (OTC) availability for safe prescription drugs such as nausea treatments and vaginal estrogen. Simultaneously, the agency proposes dropping the long‑standing requirement for two pivotal clinical trials, moving to a...
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has moved the Getty Images‑Shutterstock merger into Phase 2, issuing an interim report that identifies competition concerns in the supply of editorial content within the United Kingdom. The regulator concluded that the global stock‑image...
Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) announced the withdrawal of the Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) licence for OBR Investments Ltd. The decision was taken at a CySEC meeting on 9 February 2026 and is grounded in Section 8(1)(a) of the 2017...
On February 12, 2026, the Kremlin announced a full ban on Meta’s WhatsApp, citing the app’s failure to comply with Russian data‑access laws. The ban blocks the service for its more than 100 million Russian users, representing over two‑thirds of the...
Swiss firm Procivis has secured a contract to build Lithuania’s end‑to‑end Digital Identity Wallet sandbox, a testbed designed to meet the eIDAS 2.0 requirements that mandate citizen wallets by 2027. The sandbox will enable secure, user‑centric wallet use cases for Lithuanian...
In a recent SEC briefing, Commissioners Peirce and Chairman Atkins addressed the sharp decline in cryptocurrency prices, emphasizing that regulators should not panic over market swings. They reiterated that the SEC’s role is to ensure robust disclosures so investors can...
The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, led by James Moloney, announced a sweeping set of rule revisions that will affect disclosure, crypto assets, and reporting frequency. CFOs should anticipate changes to Regulation S‑K aimed at trimming immaterial disclosures, new interpretive guidance...
